*Aside from vague character references I've TRIED to avoid spoilers but if you're ultra cautious I'd avoid this post.*
I've just completed act 2 and have a few thoughts based on having got there the long way round (I've taken my time and am at level 50, having enjoyed peppering the main story with side quests and just wandering around).
As a preface, I really, really enjoy this game and don't want it to end. I'm emotionally invested in the characters and the story. So I consider it very far from a fail.
But there is something about the way the act 2 quests have been laid out that doesn't quite land, emotionally. Certain things feel as if they run too quickly to have an impact.
Most notably, the Voodoo Boys segment, although it does take some playing time, in actual story terms seems very, very compressed when it should take pride of place as *the* core driver of the act 2 narrative. They did, after all, set the events of the game in motion.
So far in my playthrough, nothing has come close to the ominous vibe of looking for Brigitte. But, just as soon as they've arrived, the Boys disappear from the story. It feels perfunctory and (unlike the complaints regarding Evelyn Parker, whom I do think had a proper arc and to whom a lot of story time is dedicated), the manner of their departure feels limp and underwhelming.
More generally, Act 2 just feels rather confused: the story baton passes between Arasaka and the Voodoo Boys via Parker without properly linking the two strands. The few lines of dialogue that would be needed properly to jump between the plots and connect their stories together simply are not there so the experience feels rather random.
I wonder whether this has come about because the developers wanted to make sure the main quest can run quickly for the most casual players, without having to play the various story side quests? Because the side quests are optional, they can't be used to develop the main story. The result is that the main story is supposed to stand alone with too little material to make it flow properly.
I also wonder, at a more practical level, if much of this couldn't be improved by a different approach to the journal.
Cyberpunk is a big game with a lot of side content. But the journal is written from the point of view of a character who knows exactly what is happening *right now*. Maybe it would have been better to have the journal remind you what the hell is going on so that the plot points really land whenever you pick up the main quest.
For instance, everyone was going on about Mikoshi at one point in my play. But I couldn't actually remember what (or who) Mikoshi was. The journal would be a useful tool to make sure those points land for a player who isn't playing the main story in one gallop, and also a tool to remind players how, for instance, the Voodoo Boys fit to Alt and how Alt fits to the Arasaka strand.
At various points I felt the story would really benefit from my being able to look at the journal and see "you're doing this because this happened and that happened".
Sorry for the rambling. Something didn't feel quite right about how act 2 fits together that I find hard to put into words, like it's teetering just shy of greatness, and I was interested in what others think about it all.
I've just completed act 2 and have a few thoughts based on having got there the long way round (I've taken my time and am at level 50, having enjoyed peppering the main story with side quests and just wandering around).
As a preface, I really, really enjoy this game and don't want it to end. I'm emotionally invested in the characters and the story. So I consider it very far from a fail.
But there is something about the way the act 2 quests have been laid out that doesn't quite land, emotionally. Certain things feel as if they run too quickly to have an impact.
Most notably, the Voodoo Boys segment, although it does take some playing time, in actual story terms seems very, very compressed when it should take pride of place as *the* core driver of the act 2 narrative. They did, after all, set the events of the game in motion.
So far in my playthrough, nothing has come close to the ominous vibe of looking for Brigitte. But, just as soon as they've arrived, the Boys disappear from the story. It feels perfunctory and (unlike the complaints regarding Evelyn Parker, whom I do think had a proper arc and to whom a lot of story time is dedicated), the manner of their departure feels limp and underwhelming.
More generally, Act 2 just feels rather confused: the story baton passes between Arasaka and the Voodoo Boys via Parker without properly linking the two strands. The few lines of dialogue that would be needed properly to jump between the plots and connect their stories together simply are not there so the experience feels rather random.
I wonder whether this has come about because the developers wanted to make sure the main quest can run quickly for the most casual players, without having to play the various story side quests? Because the side quests are optional, they can't be used to develop the main story. The result is that the main story is supposed to stand alone with too little material to make it flow properly.
I also wonder, at a more practical level, if much of this couldn't be improved by a different approach to the journal.
Cyberpunk is a big game with a lot of side content. But the journal is written from the point of view of a character who knows exactly what is happening *right now*. Maybe it would have been better to have the journal remind you what the hell is going on so that the plot points really land whenever you pick up the main quest.
For instance, everyone was going on about Mikoshi at one point in my play. But I couldn't actually remember what (or who) Mikoshi was. The journal would be a useful tool to make sure those points land for a player who isn't playing the main story in one gallop, and also a tool to remind players how, for instance, the Voodoo Boys fit to Alt and how Alt fits to the Arasaka strand.
At various points I felt the story would really benefit from my being able to look at the journal and see "you're doing this because this happened and that happened".
Sorry for the rambling. Something didn't feel quite right about how act 2 fits together that I find hard to put into words, like it's teetering just shy of greatness, and I was interested in what others think about it all.
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